So, it's been more than six years since we first met, and that's a good long number of months and weeks and days and hours. Of course, numbers and units do not matter much in the grand scheme of things, for the good times we shared cannot be reduced to mere figures. We could be friends forever and never realize the time.

But six-and-a-half years ago when I first saw you, you were bopping around the RGS hall like a baboon. A loud baboon. With humongous* boobs. And being the mean-spirited, slouchy little nerd I was (and still am), my first thought was: "Gee. I guess this saves me the time and trouble of getting to know her, only to find that we have absolutely nothing in common." I never seem to have a good first impression of anyone, do I? I suppose the feeling is mutual.

I don't remember exactly how we became friends. I've romanticized myself into thinking it was a very natural progression we took from being classmates and CCA mates. But I don't think it's that simple.

What I do remember though, is that in the formative stage of the development of the 北姑党 Lingxi and I dedicated a considerable amount of time to acting like your 贴身丫环. That was during your 冒牌淑女 phase, when every body part of yours was prefixed with the word "玉" in conversation. Of course, the two of us did a lot of sniggering about your deluded pretensions behind your back, but we were way too cowardly to say them to your face. The two of us also took gleeful pleasure in corrupting your mind with debased thoughts, and we spent many a CCA session doing things I cannot bring myself to name on a public domain. Of course, this makes everything sound 10x worse than what we actually did, but it is the bedrock upon which our friendship is founded after all, so I feel compelled to mention it.

Remember the time the three of us entered a competition together just for the free buffet reception? We were so certain we didn't make the cut we just sat at the back of the auditorium and giggled like morons (admittedly something we do quite often) until the judge announced the name of our school and we just stared at him with our jaws unglamorously agape. When the three of us are together, we bring out both the best and worst in one another.

And who can forget the sleepover? The one with the horrific visual groping? And the late-night 三八 conversation? It was on that fateful night when we finalized the horrendously unelegant but strangely fitting name of our 姐妹淘.

Then the pinafore days ended. And although our maturity levels still lagged far behind that of the general populace, we did grow up. We were in different classes and CCAs, but the two of us became closer than we'd ever been.

I think it's lovely that I can refer to some incident in the distant past and we both will be able to remember it vividly in our minds. I can talk about the recess break we spent dramatizing the horror edition of your life story, and even though it's a very minor event in our shared history you'll instantly chime in on all the silly things we did. The rare moments we spent together in our two years at RJ are really precious to me. I will always remember the hours we spent mugging together for the A's. The way you coerced me into abusing my creative license for your testimonial. The patience with which you showed a noobie like me how to cook baby romaine. The amount of food wastage we incurred by making our incredible dango. The way we tried badly to fake a lesbian relationship until your pauper trotted by on his donkey and STOLE YOU AWAY FROM ME. The pizza you treated Lingxi and me to when you wost** that silly who's-the-first-to-get-a-bf*** bet.The time we spent jealously browsing the Facebook profiles of far prettier girls. The surprising and scandalous tidbits of information you fed me every time we got in touch after a prolonged bout of non-contact. The trust you misplaced when sharing your Fb password with me.

It's funny how we can talk for hours and hours. Sometimes you go into a monologue about your "dar pig", while I pretend to be interested and nod at the right moments. Sometimes you refuse to shut up even after I've rolled my eyes for the nth time and started counting sheep. And I admit that's when I feel rather tempted to violently throttle you into oblivion (if not for my remarkable self-restraint and of course, a healthy fear of capital punishment). But somehow I still look back fondly at them, for isn't this what friendship is about? We may annoy each other, we may snipe at each other, but I know you'll always be willing to give me a warm and curvy bear hug when I need one.

We don't really talk about important things. I'd tell you about the irritating classmate of mine and what she did today, and you'd gripe about your mother's godzilla rules. We can bitch and moan and grumble about the silliest things and time just flies by. But once in a blue moon we shed our bitchy wolfskins and get into really great conversations about life and dreams and hope.

You know, you are one of my favorite people in the whole world. I guess it's because you understand what's important to me and you never, ever play mind games with me. So even though you can be very self-absorbed at times, I love you anyway.

I wanted to write a poetic, eloquent ode to friendship. But our friendship is not a poetic and eloquent one, nor one that people will want to base movies on. It's a simple, ordinary (loosely defined) friendship. But the mutual understanding, the easy comfort, the inside jokes, the random teasing, all the little things we shared...I'm sure friends like that do not come by very often in one's lifetime. Sometimes good times seem almost too short to bear. Soon we'll be in different time zones, see different sights, meet different people, and do different things. But when you are far away, remember that we are always bound by memory and heart and laughter shared-and these things are far greater than simple distance or time.

photos from just now :)

LOVE IS IN THE AIR :)